Hold On

Chapter Three - Cold Comfort

Blood flows in the desert

Dark citadels burning too

Watch, Look over your shoulder

This one is strictly for you

Shadow opened his eyes slowly, letting himself accustom
gradually to the bright sunlight filtering in through the windows, the
unfamiliar softness of the bed beneath him...

And the raw shock as he stared into the onyx eyes of Sonic
the Hedgehog.

There was little softness in those eyes. Much less of the
easygoing good humour and mischief that Shadow was familiar with. These eyes
seemed older, harder, and colder - as though this Sonic had led a much more
brutal life that the Sonic he knew. There was deep distrust and suspicion in
the eyes, and in the hard set of the mouth.

"Who are you?" Sonic asked abruptly. Shadow
blinked at him, then offered the only piece of information he could.

"Shadow." He replied. Sonic drew back slightly,
his face caustically disbelieving.

"Shadow? What kind of a name is that?"

Shadow tilted his head slightly, "It's the only one I
have. My... past is something of an enigma to me."

Sonic snorted, "I'll bet," Another one of those
penetrating looks, which Shadow returned calmly. Eventually, Sonic looked away,
"How'd you get here, anyway?" Sonic asked a lot of the challenge gone
from his voice.

Shadow carefully considered his response to that. Weighing
up the best way to respond to that sharp question, finally he shrugged,

"I think I must have been transported from another
world."

Sonic's eyes widened, "You sayin' you're an alien or
somethin'?" Despite the harshness of the tone, the sound of Sonic's loose,
flowing accent inexplicably warmed something in Shadow. Despite the
circumstances, it was good to hear Sonniku's voice again.

"Not exactly." Shadow replied, at length,
"There was...an accident. I think I was transported from...another
dimension."

"Well, that would certainly explain some of these
readings." A female voice came from the doorway. Shadow turned to see a
young female ground squirrel stood in the door, accompanied by a tall,
nervous-looking walrus wearing a bright red cap. "Glad to see you're
awake." The squirrel said. He voice was cool and confident, softly melodic
and Shadow recognised it as the same voice that had spoken to him in the
forest.

"I heal fast," Shadow replied cautiously,
"But thank you for rescuing me."

"You're welcome." She said, moving over to plug
her small hand-held computer into one of the larger workstations in the room.
The walrus was unobtrusively working on one of the scanners, quietly taking
readings.

Sonic chose that moment to step in, "He say's his
name's 'Shadow', Sal."

"Shadow?" The squirrel asked with a quirk of an
eyebrow, "It suits you," She said after a moment, "I am Princess
Sally Acorn of the House of Acorn."

Shadow paused, unsure, "Apologies, but I have no idea
how to address a Princess."

The Princess waved that off, "Just 'Sally' will do, and
this is hardly a formal situation." She pointed at the platinum-furred
walrus, "That's Rotor, and I believe you already know Sonic."

A smile tugged at Shadow's mouth wryly, "In a manner of
speaking."

"It looks like he's telling the truth, Sally," The
walrus - Rotor - said then in a surprisingly soft voice, looking up from his
equipment, "His quantum signature is totally different to anything from
this world, but I'd like Chuck to take a look at it when..."

Rotor was interrupted by the sound of a clanging bell coming
from outside. Sonic shot outside, leaving everyone else in the hut staggered by
his slipstream. Sally and Rotor followed him as rapidly as they could, leaving
the somewhat bewildered Shadow stood in the doorway.

The source of the commotion became quickly obvious as Shadow
saw two Mobians - a male fox and a female rabbit - carrying two obviously
injured people into the clearing in the centre of the circle of huts.

"Sonic, Sally-girl," The rabbit said urgently,
"There's a whole bunch 'o SWATBots attacking Westfold Village, they're
burnin' the place to the ground!"

Sally immediately stepped in and smoothly took control,
"Sonic, Bunnie, get these two into the infirmary. Antoine, you help me
gather up the rest of Knothole - tell everyone to get hold of buckets and pans
- anything that can hold water..." She continued giving instructions as
Sonic and the rabbit came over to the medical hut.

The rabbit set her 'patient' on the cot that Shadow had just
vacated, as Sonic struggled to pull down another cot from the wall without
dropping his burden. Shadow quickly helped him, and the worked together in
silence for a moment, settling the patient - a middle-aged woodchuck from the
look of it - on the bed and tending to the most obvious of his wounds.

For both patients, it seemed to be mostly minor burns
aggravated by smoke and dirt that were the major problem. Sonic and Shadow
cleaned them as best they could, soothing the burning with cold water, then
smoothing on a healing salve and wrapping the injury in bandages. Then the work
was over, Sonic and Shadow stood staring at each other over the cot.

"Y'know, that was kinda eerie." Bunnie said
suddenly. Sonic tore his eyes from Shadow's compelling gaze to look over as his
friend.

"Huh?" He asked, puzzled.

"You two moved like y'all were psychic or something.
Like you knew exactly where the other would be, exactly what they wanted
without needin' to say a word. It was creepy."

The two hedgehogs looked at each other again, unsure, but
some of the suspicion and hostility had gone from Sonic's eyes. Bunnie shuffled
uncomfortably, edging towards the door and away from the unbearable tension
between them.

Then Sally walked in, and Sonic's attention flipped from the
dark hedgehog beside him to the admittedly beautiful squirrel at the door.

"Sonic, Bunnie," The Princess addressed them,
"We're heading over to Westfold Village, I need you two to hold off the
SWATBots until we can evacuate everyone."

"Sure, Sally-girl," Bunnie acknowledged instantly.

Sonic nodded, and moved to put a supportive hand on her
shoulder, which she quickly shook off, "We've moving in five minutes - be
ready." Sally moved to leave, Bunnie trailing her, Sonic remained, a trace
of hurt on his face before he took a breath and assumed a cool, confident
expression and moving to follow. Shadow frowned.

"Can I help?" The back and red hedgehog asked.
Sally turned around and frowned at him, looking uncertain for the first time
he'd seen. Sonic also turned and gave Shadow an indefinable look for a long
moment, then looked over at Sally.

"I'll keep an eye on him, Sal." Sonic said.

At last - a chance to find out what circumstances were on
this particular version of Mobius...and a chance to get to know Sonic, to fight
along side him, all over again.

Shadow smiled.